Sonoma County Library Commission

Bio: A Chicago native, Sarah Laggos has enjoyed living in Sonoma County for the last decade. Sarah has spent her twenty-plus year career working in higher education fundraising and passionately believes in supporting students to pursue their dreams. As the Director of Philanthropy at Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation, she is honored to be the bridge between those that find themselves in need of help and those that can help. Sarah holds a Masters in Public Service Management and a Bachelors in Psychology from DePaul University. Sarah is the proud cheerleader, taxi driver, social calendar organizing mom to a high energy 7-year-old who loves soccer, baseball, gymnastics, and climbing trees. She's lucky to be supported by an amazing husband Rick, who gives her time to pursue her personal passions, like helping libraries.

Bio: Barbara Mackenzie is a native of Indiana, graduate of the University of California Irvine, and 40-year-plus resident of Rohnert Park. She enjoyed a three-decade career in medical management and administration, primarily at Santa Rosa OB/GYN Medical Group, and the Sonoma County Medical Association. A lifelong library lover, she served on the Board of Friends of the Rohnert Park/Cotati Library for nine years, and was appointed to the Rohnert Park Library Advisory Board in 2012. She has been involved in many special events and activities in support of the library through both these organizations. Barbara serves on the Green Music Center Advisory Board and Finance Committee, supports many of the fine programs at the GMC, and is working to strengthen the relationship between the GMC and the library. A community member on the St. Joseph Health System Hospices Advisory Board for almost 20 years, Barbara has also served on its Executive Committee and Long Range Planning Committees. Prior to her Library Commission appointment, Barbara was very active with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Sonoma State University, and served as Advisory Board Member, Ambassador, Science Club co-founder and student field trip organizer. Barbara is an amateur genealogist and photographer, and other favorite activities include exploring parks and cities, attending arts, music and community activities, and reading. She and her husband Jake have enjoyed the company of many cats and dogs over the years, and visit their human extended families in the US and UK as they find the time. Barbara has represented the City of Rohnert Park on the Library Commission since 2014.

Bio: When Brooke Greene was looking for a small town in which to raise her family, her bottom-line criterion was that the town be large enough to have a library. In 1984, Brooke and her husband were lucky enough to find a home just a block from the Cloverdale branch, where they still live. Brooke is retired and was formerly employed by the Cloverdale Senior Multi-purpose Center, private businesses in Cloverdale, and Cloverdale Unified School District. As co-coordinator of the United Way’s Schools of Hope literacy program in Cloverdale, she brought community volunteers and young emerging readers together in one-on-one tutoring sessions. She has served on the boards of CARE (Cloverdale’s educational foundation), Friends of the Cloverdale Library, and the Alexander Valley Healthcare Center and currently is a member of Cloverdale Indivisible’s Steering Committee.

Bio: Robin Riley is a community organizer who specializes in building up people, programs, partnerships, and organizations around the commons. She’s traveled extensively for her work and has only grown fonder of the place she grew up: Sonoma County. Libraries and access to high-quality, curated information have been a lifeline for Robin as she found herself and built a career without the benefit of a university education. To her, libraries represent a lot of what is right in the world. Robin’s career has centered on nonprofit community-developed technology, though she finds much of her joy in public service. Robin has accumulated more than two decades of volunteer leadership experience across Petaluma Pride, Open Source Initiative, Petaluma’s General Plan Advisory Committee and Technology Advisory Committee, ACLU Northern California, and several electoral campaigns.

Bio: Peter is from San Francisco. He studied biochemistry at Cal and went to graduate school at the University of San Francisco to earn an MS in biology followed by an MA in Librarianship at San José State. Peter started his 50+ year library career as the Science Librarian at Sonoma State and finished at UCSF – Clinical Librarian (Radiology). In between he was Director of Information Services at Equitable Environmental Health, Medical Librarian at UC Davis; Head of Reader Services at the California Institute of Technology; Head of Information Services at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago; Technical Writer at Information Access Company, Database Administrator with IBM Global Services at PacBell, and Research Librarian with PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Global Technology Centre in Menlo Park and Research Fellow/Analytics Manager at PwC’s Thought Leadership Institute in New York. He did extended consulting with The Lawrence Livermore Lab, The American College of Surgeons, Syntex, California Air Resources Board, Hewlett Packard and many others. Peter reflects that becoming a librarian offered him the opportunity to do many interesting things: public service; research and publication; information technology; personnel management and labor relations; and most of all, having a good time helping people get the information they needed. Peter retired from PwC in 2014 and retired again from UC in 2024!

Bio: Eve Goldberg is a writer and filmmaker. She has produced, directed, and edited documentaries, television shows, and videos for corporate, non-profit, and community organizations. Eve has served on the Sonoma County Juvenile Justice Commission, and has worked with Daily Acts, the Ceres Community Project, and CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Youth). She has also been an adult literacy tutor with the Sonoma County Library. She holds a BA in Film from San Francisco State University, and an MA in Counselling Psychology from Antioch University West. She and her partner, Linda, have lived in Santa Rosa since 2002. She represents the County of Sonoma on the Library Commission.

Bio: Fred Engbarth, a resident of Sonoma County since 1971, is the owner of an employment law and mediation practice which currently serves small-medium sized businesses and not for profit organizations located in Sonoma County. Fred has over 40 years of experience resolving workplace disputes in a range of subject areas and for clients in both the public and private sectors primarily through the use of negotiation and mediation. As an employment law attorney and consultant, the focus of his practice is the creation of healthy work environments and the prevention of employment disputes.

Bio: Tina moved to Sonoma County in 1998. She grew up in England and Massachusetts, and still remembers the Bookmobile coming to her neighborhood. Libraries and reading were a big part of her childhood, and she is following in the footsteps of her dad, who was a volunteer and board member of his local library. Tina was a science teacher at Sonoma Country Day School for 15 years and before that worked at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center as the director of their School Garden Teacher Training Program. She has taught both children and adults in these roles. She also worked at various research labs at the University of Rochester, NY. She, along with her family, is a founding member of Frog Song, a cohousing community in Cotati. She was a volunteer for the Sonoma Master Gardeners, a Big Sister in the Santa Cruz Big Brother/Big Sister organization, and served on the board of the Santa Cruz Women’s Health Center.

Bio: Kimberly Taylor is an educator who has lived throughout the broader Bay Area and fallen in love with Sonoma County. She has 15 years of experience as an educator, developing programs and working primarily with neurodivergent students. Kimberly believes strongly in the importance of critical thinking, literacy, and imagination as building blocks for a healthy, thriving society, and she sees the library both as a gateway for learners of all ages to access essential touchstones and a common hearth for the communities it serves. She holds a bachelor's degree in history from UC Santa Cruz and has significant training in child development, environmental science, and theater arts. In her spare time, Kimberly enjoys camping, hiking, woodcraft, storytelling, writing poetry, and cooking alongside her spouse, a high school science teacher. She represents the City of Sonoma on the Library Commission.

Bio: Dr. Joshua Hamzehee is a Communication Studies professor at Santa Rosa Junior College, and the Director of SRJC's award-winning Forensics Speech, Debate, and Performance Team. A Santa Rosa resident for the past four years, Josh is passionate about connecting with and amplifying the voices of the communities he serves.

Before making Santa Rosa home, Josh spent two decades living, teaching, and performing all across the United States. Those experiences, combined with his upbringing in an Iranian immigrant household, have shaped his commitment to bridging cultural and experience divides through the power of sharing stories. Libraries are the perfect place for this exchange.

Josh is also an award-winning touring performance artist, published author of multiple books and scholarly articles, professional speaking coach, and event host. He earned his Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Louisiana State University, his M.A. from California State University, Long Beach, and served on several arts and community service boards. To learn more, visit joshhamzehee.com. Or, ask his cat, Miss Judy.

Dr. Hamzehee represents the City of Santa Rosa on the Library Commission.